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Kansas — The Lecompton Constitution. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. DAYID KILGOEE, OF INDIANA. 



Delivered in the U. S. House of Bepresentatives, March 24, 1858. 



Mr. Chairman, I do not expect, at this late 
period of the session, when the all-exciting to- 
pic of controversy has been discussed in every 
form, to be able to introduce a single new idea, i 
nor would I. on this occasion, open my mouth, j 
but that it will b« expected, perhaps, by those 
whom I represent here, that I should say 
something. I regret extremely to see that 
bitterness of feeling which is evinced on the 
part of gentlemen upon this floor in the dis- 
cussion of this subject. I represent a peace- 
able, orderly, law-abiding Quaker constitu- 
ency. The angry feeling with which they are de- 
nounced upon this floor would be startling to 
them, if they could witness it as I have wit- 
nessed it for the last few months. I have been 
astonished to find gentlemen representing the 
interests of the South denouncing men upon 
this side indiscriminately as a band of Aboli- 
tionists, and applying to them the general 
charge of negro stealing. Why, sir, just such 
denunciations have tended to rouse that ex- 
citement of party feeling which now rages all 
over the country. The people of the North 
are denounced, and charged with every crime 
in the whole catalogue of crimes. It was re- 
marked the other day that speeches made by 
Southern gentlemen were sent by Northern 
men to their constituents. That is true ; and, 
on the other hand, when we happen to have 
an imprudent speaker upon our side of the 
House, who denounces your institutions in 
terms of bitterness, you also flood your coun- 
try with his speeches. They ai-e sent there, 
if not to the mass of the people, at least to the 
political leaders, for the purpose of showmg 
Northern sentiment towards Southern institu- 
tions. Human nature is the same. North and 
South. We read your speeches ; and we do 
it for the purpose of showing the feelings you 



entertain towards us and our institutions ; and 
you circulate speeches made by gentlemen of 
the North, and they have the same eflFect — to 
excite public indignation against us. 

These things are done, too, when partisan 
strife is raging all over this country with un- 
bounded licentiousness. 

But, sir, we are called Abolitionists, and de- 
nounced as fanatics. Why is this ? Cannot 
gentlemen distinguish between abolishing sla- 
very in the States where it exists by virtue of 
local laws, and extending it into Territories 
that are free ? The difference is to me so pal- 
pable that I think no man ought to confound 
them. I am an old-fashioned Whig ; and I 
stand, upon this slavery question, where the 
old Whig party stood ; where that distinguish- 
ed leader of the Whig party, the statesman of 
the nation, Mr. Clay, stood. Where slavery- 
exists in a State by legal sanction, there let it 
alone. Where slavery exists by virtue of law, 
there let it alene, until those having the legal au- 
thority determine to abolish it. But, sir, where 
slavery does not exist ; where Territories are 
free ; where there is no law creating the in- 
stitution, I say, what that eminent leader said 
among his last declarations : " I never can 
and never will vote, and no earthly power will 
ever make me vote, to spread slavery over ter- 
ritory where it does not exist." But, sir, I 
am not alone on this platform of principles. I 
would like to inquire of Southern gentlemen 
upon the other side, if they have examined Mr, 
Buchanan's political record closely ? I would 
like to know whether they have not taken into 
their bosoms an Abohtionist ? If I am an 
Abolitionist upon this subject, on account of 
occupying the ground I do, James Buchanan 
is an Abolitionist also, and has been one for 
the last forty years. True, he may have 



/"CrS 



been baptized since the Cincinnati Convention 
into the true laith of the South. Gentlemen 
will pardon me for calling their attention to a 
resolution signed by the distinguished occu- 
pant of the White House, in his native State, 
Pennsylvania, in the year 1811.^ when the Mis- 
souri question agitated the whole country : 

" Whereas the people of this State, pursuing; the 
maxims and animated by the beneficence of the great 
founder of Pennsylvania, tirst gave effect to the grad- 
ual abolition of slavery by a national act, which has 
not only rescued the unhappy and helpless African 
within their territory from the demoralizing inlluence 
of slavery, but ameliorating his state and condition 
throughout Europe and America; and whereas it 
would illy comport witti those humane and Christian 
efibrts to" be silent spectators when this great cause 
of humanity is about to be agitated in Congress, by 
filing the destiny of the new domains of the United 
States : Therefore, 

" Resolved, That the Representatives in Congress 
from this district be, and they are hereby, most earn- 
estly requested to use their utmost endeavors, as mem- 
bers of the National Legislature, to f recent the existence 
of slavery in any of the mw IWritories and States 
which may be created bj' Congress. 

" Jiesolved, as the opinion of this meeting. That as 
t he Legislature of this State will shortly be in session, 
it will be highly deserving of their wisdom and pa- 
triotism to take into their early and most .serious 
consideration the propriety of instructing our llcpre- 
sentatives in the National Legislature to use the 
most zealous and strenuous exertions to inhiUt the ex- 
idtence of slavery in any of the Territorit-s or Slates 
which may hereafter be created by Congress ; and 
that the members of Assembly from this county be 
requested to embrace the earliest opportunity of 
bringing this subject before both Houses of the Legis- 
lature. 

" Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, 
the njember-i of Congress who, at the last session, 
sustained the cause of justice, humanity, and patriot- 
ism, in opposing the tntroductlon of shiver >/ into the 
State, then endeavored to be farmed out of the Mis- 
souri Territory, are entitled to the wai'tnest thanks of 
every fri*'nd of humanity. 

" Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting 
be published in the newspapers in this citv. 

"JAMES HOPKINS. 
"WILLIAM JENKINS. 
"JAMES BUCHANAN. 

"The foregoing resolutions, being read, were unani- 
mously adopted ; after which the meeting adjourned. 
"WALTER FRANKLIN, Uhairtrutn. 

"Attest: William Jeski'ss, Secretu);^. 

Mr. J. GLANCY JONES. Do I understand 
the gentleman to say that Mr. Buchanan drew 
up those resolutions ? 

Mr. KILGORE. No, sir; I do not know 
that he drew them up. I say he signed them. 

Mr. J. GLANCY JONES. Do I understand 
him to say that he signed them ? 

Mr. KILGORE. I understand from the re- 
port of the papers published at that time, that 
Mr. Buchanan was one of a committee of three 
men who reported these same resolutions. 

Mr. J. GLANCY JONES. I wish the 
gentleman would give us his authority. 

Mr. KILGORE. You will find it in the 
Lancaster Intelligencer, volume 21, No. 21, 
published in 18l!». 

Mr. J. GLANCY JONES. With the per- 
mission of the gentleman I desire to say a 



word. I have had occasion more than once to 
repeat what I am now abcfut to say upon this 
subject; and that is, that Mr. Buchanan never 
signed the resolutions, and they never had his 
sanction in any shape or form. His name was 
attached to them without his authority — as 
frequently hnppen.s — without his knowledge 
or assent. That is the simple history of the 
matter, 

Mr. KILGORE. It is too late to deny this 
record after a silence of forty years. 

Mr. PURVIANCE. I desire to ask my col- 
league if Mr. Buchanan did ever in any shape 
or form disavow the resolutions at that time ? 
Mr. FLORENCE. No; nor at any other 
time that he was assailed. 

Mr. J. GLANCY JONES. I am not aware 
that he did. 

Mr. KILGORE. I cannot admit this cross- 
firing. 

Mr. GROW. I would like to ask my col- 
league if Mr. Buchanan was in favor of the 
Missouri compromise ? 

Mr. J. GLANCY JONES. He gave his as- 
sent to it as a peace measure when every lead- 
ing patriot in the country. North and South, 
advocated its passage to save the Union. 

Mr. KILGORE. I am informed that these 
resolutions were published in the newspapers of 
his own town, at the time, and that no one as- 
sumed to contradict it. 1 have no doubt, Mr. 
Chairman, that Mr. Buchanan's friends would 
be very anxious to deny a great many things 
connected with his political history. 

But, sir, I was remarking that I occupy the 
position occupied by Mr. Clay, and the posi- 
tion occupied — as I understand it — by Mr. 
Buchanan at that particular time. I will not 
pretend to say what Mr. Buchanan's opinions 
are now. I admit that this is an age of pro- 
gression, and that he is remarkably progres- 
sive for an old gentli:man. It perhaps would 
not be amiss for me to remark here, that in- 
stead of being an Abolitionist, as the persons 
with whom I act are charged with being, I am 
a free-State man. 

I was born and reared in a slave State, and 
I am proud of the State of my nativity, for it 
is one of the noblest of the old States of this 
Union. She has furnished heroes to the field, 
and statesmen to the council of the nation. It 
is the land of the lamented Clay. But, as I 
said, I now represent here a free interest. The 
State of my* adoption is surrounded with 
everything that is calculated to endear me to 
free institutions. When I contrast the state 
of things there with what I learn of the con- 
dition of the extreme Southern States, I am 
proud of my position. How do we stand ? 
We have our free schools ; we have our 
churches ; we have our academies ; we have our 
charitable institutions for the benefit of the deaf 
and dumb, the blind, and the insane. We have 
our thousands of miles of railroads, our fields 
teeming with abundance, our thriving towns, 



our flourishiHg cities — everyttiing to endear us 
to our home. Can those gentlemen who have de- 
nounced us on this floor as Abolitionists say 
as much for themselves ? I refer, for the con- 
diiion of the extreme Southern States, to the 
declarations of men who know all about them ; 
who ai'e not speaking at random, but who have 
been livinoj witnesses of what they have de- 
scribed. My friend from Missouri, [Mr. Blair] 
did not exhaust all the materials yesterday. 
Gentlemen have hunted up the records of 
pauperism and crime in some of the Northern 
States, particularly in the State of New York. 
To that I have no objection. New York is 
represented here by gentlemen wdio are able 
to defend her and her institutions. But I 
would call the attention of gentlemen to a few 
facts connected with the history of South 
Carolina. The gentleman from Missouii [Mr. 
Blair] quoted fiom a speech made by Mr. 
Grejg, in 1851, before the South Carolina In- 
stitute. There is a part, however, which he 
did not quote, and which I will read : 

"From the best estimates (says Mr. GrefC";) that 
I have been able to make, I put down the white peo- 
ple who ouo;ht to work, and who do not, or are so 
employed as to be wholly unproductive to the State, 
at onehuiidred and twenty-tive thousand." 

Out of a population of three hundred thou- 
sand, at the outside, there are one hundred 
and twenty-five thousand who are not em- 
ployed at all, or so employed as to be wholly 
useless. Mr. Gregg follows this up by stating 
that all the capital, enterprise, and intelligence 
of South Carolina, are employed in directing 
slave labor; and that "the consequence is, 
that a large portion of our poor white people 
are wholly neglected, and are suffered to while 
away an existence in a state but one step in 
advance of the Indian of the forest." But I 
am not yet through my quotations from Mr. 
Gregg. He says again : 

"Shall we pass unnoticed the thousands of poor, 
ignorant, ikgraded, tvkite people among us, who, in 
this land of plenty, live in comparative nakedness 
and starvation? Many a one is reared in proud 
South Carolina, from birth to manhood, who has 
never passed a month in which he has not some part 
of the time been stinted for meat. JIany a mother 
is there who will tell you that her children are but 
scantily provided with bread, and much more scau- 
til}^ with meat; and, if they be clad with comforta- 
ble raiment, it is at the expense of these scanty 
allowances of food. These may be startling state- 
ments, but they arc nevertheless true ; and, if not 
believed in Charleston, the members of our Legisla- 
ture, who have traversed the State*n electioneering 
campaigns, can attest the truth." 

Attest the truth of what? That there are thou- 
sands of men, not in her crowded cities, but in 
her remote districts, who are suffering for food 
and suffering for raiment. When gentlemen 
talk of the poor of the North, let them remem- 
ber that they have the poor with themselves. 
Let them remember what Gregg says, that 
their poor are not inore than half civilized. 
Here is raw material for them to operate upon. 
They have been operating upon it for a hun- 



dred years ; and when they have been operat- 
ing on it for a hundred years more, I have no 
doubt they will find still a surplus of that raw 
material. 

Our churches and school-houses are prized 
as we prize our household gods. It is with 
these and with our plows, our looms, and our 
anvils, we advance our civilization. Would it 
be believed that in proud South Carolina such 
misery exists ? And yet it is lamentably true, 
as Mr. Gregg attests. 

It could not be otherwise when the rich 
and productive land is all owned and used by 
the slave owner, while the unfortunate poor 
whites are left to the sani-hills and pine- 
swamps, upon which a church mouse would 
starve if allowed the range of a thousand 
acres. 

A Senator from .South Carolina asks, what 
should we think if they should send mission- 
aries among our people? Why, sir, the people 
of Indiana would like to see such missionaries 
from the South among their [loor people. They 
would take great pain.s to aid them in their 
benevolent purposes. They would exhibit to 
them a people enjoying all the comforts of life ; 
where free labor not only receives its merited 
reward, but is counted honorable. They would 
point them to the thousand monuments of 
general prosperity to bo found all over our 
State. They would learn them the true value 
of our free institutions. When thus shown the 
peace, happiness, and prosperity that pervade 
every class of society there, finding instead 
of lohite slanes, as the Senator seemed to think 
them, a noble set of freemen, fully informed 
as to all their rights, blessing and adorning a 
country where free thought, free speech, and 
a free press, are enjo3'ed to their fullest extent, 
and properly appreciated, I fear these same 
missionaries Vould hardly return to the South. 
But should they do so, and give the poor 
white men of the South a true history of 
what their eyes had beheld, they would flee 
from that region like rats from a sinking 
ship, until there would not be enough of 
them-left, to patrol the streets and plantations, 
and watch the slaves while their masters sleep. 

But, says my friend from Mississippi, [Mr. 
Davls,] you are making war upon Southern in- 
stitutions; and when you make war upon their 
institutions, the South will visit you with fire 
and sword. Well, sir, let them come. Let 
the gentlemen bring an army of the unfortunate 
poor of the South with them, M'ith fire and 
sword. We will be glad to see them. AVe will 
not meet them with soldiers. We will treat 
them well ; and the soldiers, attracted by our 
free institutions, will leave their colors. Wo 
have riot acts, and may, perhaps, indict 
the leaders for riot; but we wiU inflict no 
greater punishment upon them. We will vin- 
dicate our laws, but treat them with kindness, 
and still be just to the vSouth ; and when they 
get there, they will find it so great a paradise 



that they will be glad to find an asylum among 
us ; and we will receive them with open arms. 

A gentleman the other day read an extract 
from a speech delivered by the gentleman from 
Virginia, [Mr. Faulkner,] in the Legislature 
of tliat State, in 18:32. 8ir, the page which 
records that speech of the gentleman will stand 
as the brightest page in his biography. His 
name will stand recorded side by side with the 
great names of Washington, Jefferson, and 
many of the most distinguished men of Vir- 
ginia or of the country. I would not have that 
page blotted out, were it mine, for all the 
wealth that slavery can give. 

But there is another extract which I wish to 
read, from a speech dulivered in the same de- 
bate by another distinguished Virginian. Mr. 
Curtis, in the Virginia Legislature, in the year 
1832, in speaking of this institution, said : 

"See the wide spreading ruin which tlie avarice 
of our ancestral govertniient has produced in the 
South, as witnessed in a sparsi^ ])npuiati»n of free- 
men, deserted habitations, and lields without cuUiirf. 
Strange to tell, even tiie wolf, driven back long since 
by the approach of man, now returns, after the lapse 
of a lutndred years, to howl over the desohitlons of 
■ tlaver)/." 

Alter one hundred years, the wolf will come 
back to howl over the desolations of slavery in 
old Virginia, the mother of States and states- 
men — the mother of Presidents. We have 
driven them back from the West ; they have 
gone beyond the voice of civilization, and we 
expect to keep them there. We do not 
expect they will come back to howl over our 
fields. 

But, sir, our opposition to slavery, the 
gentleman says, is fanaticism ; and a distin- 
guished Senator, in the other end of the Capi- 
tol, [Mr. Toombs,] has told us that that fanati- 
cis'ii must be crushed out. Crushed out, sir! 
Let me tell tj^at Senator that tlrC; fanaticism of 
which he speaks, if he chooses to call it so, is 
almost universal in the North. There is no 
man there who is an advocate of slavery. 
There is no man from that section of the 
country who will go before his constituents 
and advocate the extension of slavery. My 
colleague [Mr. Hughes] docs not support the 
bill for the admission of Kansas because he is 
in favor of the extension of slavery. It is be- 
cause he loves the Democratic partj--, and be- 
cause it is a party measure ; and so it is with 
every Democrat from the North on this lloor 
who supports the bill. 

But Northern Democrats told the j)eoplc, 
after the repeal of the Missouri compromise 
line, there was no danger of slavery going to 
the Territoj ies ; that there were but three 
hundred and fifty thousand slaveholders in the 
whole Union — hardly enough to people a single 
State; and it was said, such being the case, 
why raise the question of slavery at all V that 
freedom will always outrun slavery in a fair 
race. Sir, the Democrats of the North arc 
not in tavor of slavery ; it is a slander upon 



the Democratic party ; but they arc in favor 
of allowing the people, in settling up a coun- 
try, to regulate their institutions in their own 
way. It is the doctiine of squatter sovereignty. 
They will speak against slavery, and they will 
vote against it, but they will leave it in the 
Territories to the action of the people ; they 
will not endanger the peace of our institutions 
by attempting to prescribe here what shall be 
done. 

Now, sir, we have frequently heard of a 
class of men known as dongh-faces, men for 
whom even the South has no lespect, in whom 
the South has no confidence. I ask if the 
Richmond South is not good authority on this 
subject ? 1 will read a short extract Irom that 
paper : 

"So Mr. Douglas has shown bis cloven foot to 
the South at last. 1 never believed he was whole- 
footed. All that he has ever done has been to cajole ■ 
the South to choose between evils, to take the best 
she can get, to sugar over nauseous j)ills and bribe 
theSoutlicrn members to coax the South to swallow 
them. I never had coulidence in him. / have no 
confidence iit, any man north of Macan and IHxou's 
line. They cannot be our friends and be honest. 
The interests of the two sections are antagonistic. ' 
The Northern man who goes lor our interest neces- 
sarily goes against the interest of the North, his 
cinnitry, and 1 can have no confidence in a traitor, 
no matter Liow high his price." 

Thus speaks an ultra pro-slavery paper of 
Northern men, who follow the lead of the South. 
It is true, it speaks particularly of those who 
believe with Mr. Douglas ; but wc must re- 
member the declaration, that no Northerr> 
men can be their friends and be honest. 

Northern Democrats are now asked to leave 
the principles of their party and to come to the 
rescue of the South in the present question. 
Do Southern men want them to Ijecome trai- 
tors ? Do they want to induce them to turn 
their backs upon the interests of the people 
they represent ? 

But, sir, we are told that, if Kansas is not 
admitted, it \vill be taken for granted that no 
more slave States can be admitted into tho 
Union. If they always come in the manner in 
which Kansas presents herself here to-day, I 
hope to God none ever will be admitted into 
the Union ; but when a tState comes herewith 
a constitution formed by the people, and they 
ask for slave institutions, then, and not till then, 
if she be refused admission into the Union, 
will Southern gentlemen have a right to take it 
for granted that wc shall refuse admi>sion to 
any more slave States. In the North the senti- 
ment is universal, however, that no more slave 
States shall be formed out of the ten'itory north 
of the Missotiri compromise line, or any other 
free territory. Show us where a slave State, 
with a slave constitution, adopted by a fair 
vote of the people, is kei)t out of the Union, 
and then Southern gentlemen will have some 
good reason to complain. But, they sa}' that 
the North is disposed to encroach upon the 
rights of the South. AVh^"-, sir, there is no 



man in the North who will infringe upon a 
Southern man's rights. Even the Abolition- 
ists, some two thousand in number, would 
not interfere with your slaves in States where 
they arc held by law. What is their position? 
They want to go out of the Union because they 
cannoc separate themselves from slavery in the 
Union. So with some Southern men ; they 
want to go out of the Union because they can- 
not, by remaining in it, succeed in extending 
slavery as they would wish. I have about as 
much I egard for the one as the other. I will tell 
you what I would do with these men. I would 
colonize them together upon the burning sands 
of the South or icy shores of the Northern lakes; 
and there I would leave them to carry out their 
project of dissolution by dissolving themselves, 
until only v single man was left ; and then I 
would not care if he, like the London jugglei", 
would swallow himself. [Laughter.] 

Why talk about dissolving this Union? Can 
that dissolution be a peaceable one? Can our 
honored flag be trailed in the dust without 
first being stained with the blood of our people? 
No, sir, it cannot be done peaceablj^, and you 
have no right to talk about a dissolution by 
force. The attempt would be treasonable. 
You may have the power to involve the people 
of the two sections of this nation in civil war ; 
you may have the power, by force and violence, 
to destroy the beautiful system of government 
which we inherit from our fathers — to ruin 
everything dear to the lovers of our common 
country ; but then, let me ask, what would 
the South gain by it ? If the attempt should 
result, as it most assuredly would, in civil 
war, spreading all over this Union, laying 
waste our fruitful fields, and destroying our 
homes, putting out the tires of our fui'naces 
and forges, stopping the machinery of our 
manufactories, and silencing the hum of busy 
industry all over the free North, what would 
you of the South gain by all this ? Your 
slaves would not be worth a dime to you, but 
instead of being a blessing, as you now consider 
them, they would prove your greatest curse ; 
from being your submissive, obedient servants, 
they would become the instruments of mischief 
in the hands of your enemies, and the general 
desolation that would follow, might serve not 
only to remind us of the proud state from which 
we had fallen, but would allow the tyrants of 
the Old World to point at us as another evi- 
dence of the incapacity of the people to govern 
themselves. Broken to pieces by our own 
madness, we would bo lit objects of universal 
scorn. 

Mr. Chairman, you say, in the South, that 
you have important interests. We raise cot- 
ton, say you^so you do. Wc raise sugar — so 
yon do ; and we rejoice in the North, when 
we hear that there are good crops of sugar and 
cotton ; and we regret it, when there is a fail- 
ure of either. We rejoice when you rejoice, 
and mourn when you mourn. Wc receive 



the raw material of your producers, and by 
our skill and handywork, aided by our machi- 
nery, transform it into fiibrics useful and orna- 
mental. Your sugar we need. It is, if not a 
necess:iry, at least a luxury of life that we are 
not willing to dispense with. Sir, as an evi- 
dence of om- liberality towards you, even while 
your men were denouncing the doctrine of 
pi'otection, when we wished to aid and protect 
Northern interests, and you refused it, we ly 
our votes aided in giving your sugar protec- 
tion by a tariif that caused the consumers of 
that article to pay, in the form of duties, du- 
ring the hst year, nearly thirteen million 
dollars. Thus, when called upon, we have 
ever been ready to protect jMiur interests, 
even when you have refused to aid us in pro- 
tecting Northerrif manufacturers and Northern 
interests. And now, simpl)' because we refuse 
to jom you in a crusade against the rights of 
the people of Kansis, we are pronounced sec- 
tional and unjuyt to the South. Sir, you ask 
too much at our hands. AVe have given you 
protection, and you offer to pay us by oppres- 
sion. 

Mr. Chairman, I believe that if we admit 
Kansas under the present circumstances, it 
will be a violation of the lights of the people. 
I do believe that if we protect the rights of the 
people, they will always protect the rights of 
the States. There will be no danger, if their 
rights be guarded and protected ; but when 
you deny them the right to the enjoyment of 
life and pi'operty, and the right to self-govern- 
ment so far as concerns the institutions under 
which they live ; when you attempt to force 
an organic act upon them against their will, 
simply because you have the power to do so, 
it is not to be expected that they will respect 
those who have done them this wrong. You 
may have the power, by executive influence 
and aid, to consummate this outrage. But 
what will it profit you? Nothing, absolutely 
nothing. The laurels will wither in their win- 
ning ; the spoils will not be worth possessing, 
while you may set an example — not worthy 
indeed of imitation, or to be cited as a prece- 
dent — but which, at no distant day, may be 
thus cited and imitated to your serious harm. 

But it comes in due form of law, say gentle- 
men ; and, as a gentleman said the other day, 
that is all thei'e is of it. It has the form with- 
out the substance. As good and as valid a 
constitution might have been gotten up by this 
John Calhoun, and Henderson, and these other 
fugitives from justice in this city, in some gro- 
cery in Missouri, which so far as forms are 
concerned, would have been as correct an ex- 
pression of the will of the people of Kansas as 
that contained in the constitution which they 
have already presented. 

I speak of these gentlemen as fugitives from 
justice. I understand that they are officers 
of Kansas, and ought to be there ; but 1 am 
inclined to think that they have been led to 



.6 



believe that this is the safest place for them ; 
for there is a marine force here that was called 
upon to shoot down citizens in the streets, and 
which may be called out to protect them from 
the indignation of an outraged people. 

But we have the forms of law, say they. 
Well, sir, there some peculiar forms which 
have been required in reference to this consti- 
tution. My worthy friend from Oregon [Mr. 
Lank] rose in his place in this House, and said, 
'•Mr. Speaker, I present to you the constitu- 
tion of the people of Or^'gon." There was no 
excitement about.it— no difficulty, and no one 
objected, lias there been three months' dis- 
cussion over it? No. Kansas had her Dele- 
gate, too, upon this floor, on this side of the 
House. AVhy was it that that gentleman was 
not permitted to speak for Kansas? Why 
was he not permitted to get up and announce 
that he presented to this House the constitu- 
tion of Kansas? Who shall speak for the 
people of Kansas, when they do not speak for 
themselves, but their representative here? Ore- 
gon comes here of her own free will, with a 
constitution endorsed by her people, submitted 
to them in every form and shape for their de- 
terniination. IIow comes Kansas ? Kansas, 
covered all over with violence, is driven in 
here against her will. She comes here with 
her robes soiled ; she comes here by force and 
violence, and it becomes necessary that the 
executive robes should be put upon her. The 
Executive sends in a long m ssage, telling you 
that the people of Kansas have formed a con- 
stitution, and that he ha^ received it from the 
hands cf John Calhoun. Not content with 
that, he must read to you a history of the vil- 
lainies and outrages that have been perpetra- 
ted by the majority upon the minority in Kan- 
sas. 

"Well," say gentlemen, "we cannot go be- 
hind the record, where all looks right upon its 
face. It does look fair upon its face, if you 
will shut your eyes to the truth, and close your 
ears to everything. But we tell you the whole 
matter is rotten, and ask you to investigate it. 
How are we met in tha' request? We have 
had to encounter executive influence, and an 
investigation is denied us. How, then, can 
gentlemen get up and say that this constitution 
expresses the true will of the people of Kan- 
sas, when they refuse to allow us to bring 
proof to establish beyond controversy that it 
is the consummation of the vilest frauds that 
have ever been perpetrated ? 

The gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. 
Bishop] told you the other day what jou 
would get by it — that slavery would get the 
shell, and freedom the oyster. There is truth 
in that. IIow can you expect to maintain 
slavery in Kansas, with three-fouilhs of her 
people opposed to the constitution? What 
good will it do you, unless you have laws to 
protect your slaves? Can you maintain it 
against the will of a community, even if you 



have laws to give sanction to holding slaves ? 
1 see gentlemen from the South here, who know 
that it cannot be done. 

But we are blamed for maintaining the posi- 
tion we do. Here let me say, that there may 
be no misunderstanding, that I have a very 
high regard for the judicial tribunals of my 
country ; but, sir, I have no regard for politi- 
cal decisions, pronounced by a political court. 
I never had, and I never will have. Slavery, I 
assert, cannot exist in the absence of positive 
law in its favor. The doctrine established, as 
gentlemen say, by the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, is that slavery ex- 
ists in all the Territories. Here, again, I fol- 
low my old political leader, Henry Clay. He 
said, in the debate on the compromise meas- 
ures : 

"Far different wonkl, I fear, be our case, if, un- 
happily, we should be led into war, into civil war — 
if the two parts of this country should be placed in 
a hostile ])osition towards each other, iu (irder to 
carry slavery into new territories acquired from 
Mexico. Mr." President, we have heard— all of us 
have read— of the efibrts of France to propagate — 
what, on the continent of Europe? Not slaver^-, 
sir, not slavery, but the rights of man ; and we 
know the fate of her efforts at propagandism of that 
kind. But if, unhappily, we should be involved in 
war, in civil war, between the two parts of this Con- 
federacy, in which the effort upon the one side 
should be to restrain the introduction of slavery into 
the new territories, and upon the other side to force 
its introduction there, what a spectacle should we 
present to the astonishment of mankind, in an effort, 
not to propagate rights, but — I must say it, thouah 
I trust it will be understood to be said with no de- 
sign to excite feeling — a war to propagate wrongs in 
the territories thus acquired from Mexico. It would 
be a war in which we should have no sympathies, 
no good wishes; in which all mankind would be 
again.st us; in which our own history itself would 
be against us ; for, from the commencement of the 
Revolution down to the present time, we have con- 
stantly reproached our British ancestors for the in- 
troduction of slavery into this country." 

But it is said here that this was originally 
slave territory ; that slavery existed there 
when we acquired it from France, w ell, that 
was certainly so ; but slavery was abolished 
there north of the line thirty-six degrees thit ty 
minutes, and the compromise by which it was 
abolished was assented to for the third of a 
century. But the very moment that this ter- 
ritory is open for settlement, it is seized upon 
and converted to slavery, not alone by fraud, 
but by force and arms. An effort is luade by 
the force of this Government to wrest it from 
freedom and to secure it to slavery forever. 
The North peiformed its share of tiie contract. 
The South said that we should have freedom 
north of that line, and we said that you might 
have slavery south of it ; but the South now 
violates its compact, and insists on having 
slavery north of it. 

But gentlemen say that this Lecompton con- 
stitution has all the forms of law in its favor. 
Well, let me ask these gentlemen this question : 
if the delegates to tliat convention had been 
elected by a full and fair vote of all the peo- 



pie of the Territory, and hod engrafted on that i 
constitution certain provisions odious to all the 
people, and that people, before the act wa^ con- 
summated, came to Congress and protested 
against it, is there a man in this House — if the 
negro question was not involved in it — who 
would stand up and disregard that protest? If 
Oregon had come here- with a constitution, and 
if her Delegate on this floor protested against 
it, and her Territorial Legislature protested 
against it, and ten thousand of her citizens were 
found protesting against it; and if the North, 
in spite of all that, attempted to force that con- 
stitution upon them, denunciations loud and 
long would have come from the South. There 
is not a Southern man that would not have 
been loud in his defence of the right of the' 
people to form their own constitution. But, 
because there is a negro in this question, there 
is no such denunciation. 

Mr. HUGHES. 1 would like to put a ques- 
tion to my colleague. 

Mr. KILGORE. I have not time to be in- 
terrogated. 

Mr. HUGHES. The question is very short. 
It is this 

Mr. KILGORE. I would cheerfully yield 
to my colleague, if I could ; but I have only a 
few minutes left. Then, sir, we have this case 
presented to us: We have the protest of the 
people of Kansas, wc have the protest of their 
Territorial Legislature, we have the protest of 
their representative on this floor. And what 
excuse, let me ask Southern gentlemen, will 
you take home to your people, who love liberty, 
in justification of your effort to force on the 
people of Kansas institutions which they abhor? 
ifou may say that yo^ wanted to test the ques- 
tion of the admission of slave States ; but the 
intelligent portion of your constituents will tell 
you that you might have had a better ground 
than Kansas to test it in. 

And now, let me say to Southern gentlemen 
that I am the last man who would justify the 
slightest encroachment upon them, I would 



not tolerate it in word or deed. I hope that 
these gentlemen will at least acquit me of a 
desire to steal their negroes. I will let them 
alone ; but let me ask gentlemen of the South 
to keep the negroes to themselves, and not 
thrust them into our faces. You have got the 
larger portion of the country. Keep your ne- 
groes and enjoy it. But leave the free Terri- 
tory of Kansas to ihe unfortunate poor of the 
slave States and to the unfortunate poor of the 
free States. The Republican party, which is 
here opposing the admission of Kansas under 
this constitution, is in favor of giving the land 
of this Territory, in limited quantities, to the 
poor man South and to the poor man North, 
instead of gi\ ing it to overgrown corporations. 
We are in favor of distributing it to secure 
homes to the poor of both sections. Let South- 
ern men tell their constituents that, and, my 
word for it, they will approve the position 
taken by the Republican party in this matter. 
Now, I know that the name of "Abolitionist" 
is an odious name to the people of the South. 
I have been told, and I have no doubt truly, 
that mothers in the extreme South, when their 
children are unruly, threaten them with an 
Abolitionist. I have been told that it is not 
unusual, when a negro becomes a little over- 
bearing, for his master to threaten to take him 
to Indiana, and sell him to an Abolitionist; 
and that the very threat causes the poor negro 
to almost cry his eyes out. We do not want 
to have that reputation among the people of 
the South. Let us have no more quarrelling 
over the negro question. I have not referred 
to the poverty of the South with angry feel- 
ings, or with any other than those of regret. 
I find many very fine gentlemen here from the 
South. It may he in part attributable to their 
long association with gentlemen from the 
North. I hope the benefits may be reciprocal. 
Let us be done with wrangling, and decide 
this question according to the principles of 
righteousness and the will of the people of 
Kansas, and the country will be satisfied. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



016 088 997 4 






WASHINGTON, D. C. 

iUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
1858. 



